Chazak Ve-ematz: Be Strong and of Good Courage



Chazak Ve-ematz: Be Strong and of Good Courage

Opening remarks by Dr. Rob Weinberg, Director of the Experiment in Congregational Education (ECE) at Yachdav—All Together, a gathering of Task Force members from the 15 congregations of The RE-IMAGINE Project of New York, March 6, 2005/25 Adar I 5765

Let me begin by welcoming all of you to the New York campus of the Hebrew Union College.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Rob Weinberg and I am the National Director of the Experiment in Congregational Education or ECE. ECE is an initiative of the Rhea Hirsch School of Education, which is based on the Los Angeles campus of this great College-Institute. ECE is the organization that created and conducts The RE-IMAGINE Project under the generous sponsorship of UJA-Federation of New York.

The saying goes: if I can see farther, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants. In this case I can see farther because you are sitting and I’m standing up at this bimah! But I do stand on the shoulders of giants, too, in the form of the originators of the ECE, Dr. Isa Aron and Professor Sara Lee, as well as a superbly talented staff, and some very generous supporters whom I would like to introduce and acknowledge before we begin.

Let me introduce our staff: your consultants are the faces of ECE to many of you. They are Abby Stamelman Hocky, Tamara Gropper, Michelle Lynn-Sachs, and Evie Rotstein. Let me also introduce the man whose department has developed and provides such wonderful user support for our Online Learning Experience, HUC’s National Director of Distance Education, Gregg Alpert. And, my two wonderful partners in this work: the Assistant Director of ECE, Amy Asin, and Cyd Weissman, who directs The RE-IMAGINE Project here in New York.

Welcome guests including:

• Abby Knopp and Sara Nathan (who is here wearing two hats—as a member of B’nai Jeshurun’s RE-IMAGINE Task Force and as Chair of UJA-Federation of NY’s CoJIR Task Force on Congregational Education. They are true partners. Let me take a moment to thank them for the support that enables us to bring this project to NY.

• Sue Stevens, of the Covenant Foundation, which has supported ECE from very early on and supported the first round of The RE-IMAGINE Project in NY.

I also want to welcome our other guests, too numerous to name. We are glad you are here to share in the excitement and learning we have planned.

I especially want to welcome all of you, the congregational participants in The RE-IMAGINE Project of NY. It is for you that we have painstakingly prepared this event.

It’s difficult for me to find the words to tell you how inspiring it is that you all made the choice to be here with us today. Nearly four years ago, I made a momentous choice in my own life. After nearly 18 years as a management consultant, working with Fortune 500 companies, I made a decision to change my career and my life. I chose to leave Corporate America and all that goes with being a partner in a global consulting firm to become the Director of ECE. I made that choice because of how strongly I believe in the impact that this work, this holy work, has on the future of the Jewish people and because of my desire to devote whatever energy and expertise I possess to moving it forward.

Today, you, too, have made a momentous choice, because being here is just one symbol of your commitment to the sacred task of building the future of the Jewish people by re-imagining the Jewish education of your congregation’s children. You, too, could choose to put your expertise and energy anywhere, but you have chosen to invest it in the children of this generation so they can lead rich and meaningful Jewish lives.

It is our work to support you in this holy endeavor. As we gather in this sanctuary I feel very much like we are with the Israelites at Moab on the eve of entering the Promised Land. We are living the historic moment when Moses passed the mantle of leadership to Joshua saying “Chazak V’ematz”-- “be strong and of good courage.”

By taking part in this RE-IMAGINE Project, all of you are like Joshua, taking on educational leadership in your congregations at a turning point in our 350-year history as American Jews:

Starting in the early decades of the 20th century, when the grandparents and great-grandparents of today’s congregational supplementary school students came to these shores, the most patriotic thing they could do as new Americans was to send their children to public schools. So, in order to “do the patriotic thing,” they “modernized” Jewish education by creating so-called “supplementary” Jewish schools, and they modeled them after the public schools.

Just as Moses, who was the right leader to take the Israelites out of Egypt, accepted that he would not lead them into the Land, we accept now that this formula for children’s Jewish education, which was appropriate in its time, had both pros and cons that we don’t need to enumerate here.

It is clear, though, that the needs that gave rise to the current paradigm of Jewish supplementary “schooling,” in the early part of the last century, have largely changed. The needs and motivations of our children and families have shifted with contemporary society.

Today, as in the time of Moses and Joshua, new leadership, new ideas, new energy, and new models are needed to take us forward into a great future. When Moses told Joshua “be strong and of good courage,” he knew the journey forward would not be an easy one. He knew it would require bravery, clarity of vision, and strength of conviction.

The same is true of all of you as you lead this process of RE-IMAGINing Jewish education in your congregations.

You—and the work you are doing—are special

• The 15 congregations in this project are doing work that people all over North America are watching with keen interest. We at ECE get calls all the time from congregations wanting the opportunity to do what you are doing.

• Your congregations were chosen, from among over 300 congregations in the Greater New York area, because you showed the strength and courage to continue blazing the trail started by five of your fellow New York area congregations just 2 years ago.

• You, as individuals, were chosen to serve on Task Forces because you bring the diverse perspectives, ideas, and energy that are needed to lead your congregations to Jewish educational destinations you have not yet seen or perhaps even imagined.

• You are doing work that has a different kind of chance to make a difference than previous efforts at “school improvement”. The approach you are taking is different for several important reasons. First, it is:

← Systemic and structural, looking at the whole system, rather than simply attacking one element in isolation. This work is not about adding a program–it is about looking at the whole structure of Jewish education and questioning our fundamental assumptions about how we’ve always done things and why.

← This approach is different because it asks a different, deeper set of questions.

← And, it is different because it brings lay people and professionals together to form a stronger, more powerful team to do this work in an historic way; not sending the educator off to do it and let you know when it’s done. As you learn to work as a team, you are reinventing not only Jewish education, but how the work of Jewish education is done. It takes a team to make significant change.

And, you’re doing a great job! Look how far you’ve come on this journey! For those who are not on the Leadership Team, the stages of the journey may not be top of mind but let me recap a moment:

First, you “set the stage” by forming teams that are not made up of just the “usual suspects” who make up every other synagogue committee.

You “looked inward” to articulate and question previously-unspoken assumptions about Jewish education that you used to take for granted.

You established a base of knowledge about your current school and—by looking at its history—I suspect you have realized that your congregational school is no stranger to change. (Looking Inward)

Then you looked outward, through the “online window,” to learn about innovative models around the country. That experience has opened your eyes to a world of possibility for our children’s Jewish education. And, as we can see from the reflections you’ve written on the Online Learning Experience, you’ve begun to dare to dream!

As a result of these first three stages of the RE-IMAGINE journey, you have started asking new questions that have changed the conversation from one that only asks questions like:

• What information should students absorb?

• How many hours on how many days?

• Will they be able to “perform” well at their bar or bat mitzvah?

…to a conversation that also asks questions like:

• What should be the goals of Jewish education today?

• How should what we learn in the synagogue relate to the way we live our lives day-to-day, at work, at home, in school, and on the playground, on the subway, or at the mall?

You’re now in a conversation that asks questions like:

• Who are the learners and who are the teachers? And what is the role of parents in their children’s Jewish education?

• What role does the community play?

• What does memorable Jewish learning look like?

As you’ve communicated with your fellow congregants along the way, I suspect you have begun to change their conversations and shape their expectations about what will emerge from this process. My guess and my hope is that this whole process so far—from Setting the Stage, through Looking Inward and Looking Outward—has helped you and your congregation move away from familiar answers like copying someone else or doing more of what already exists. Instead, I trust you’ve begun to think more deeply, to raise the bar higher, to imagine new possibilities.

All along the way, you have studied Jewish texts together. As some of you have told us, through study you have begun to create a special sense of community and have found new meaning and connection to your Judaism and your congregation.

It’s a lot! Finding new answers and insights takes thoughtful reflection rather than grasping the first idea that sounds good and quickly moving to action. And thoughtful reflection takes time and energy— I know it can be frustrating, and not everyone has the patience for this kind of work. It’s almost like asking “Who has the time to paint a landscape with brush and canvas when you can snap a photo?” But what emerges from the time and reflection looks dramatically different; we know this from our work with other congregations.

To get this far, you have already been strong and courageous. And you’ve also had to be patient. You’ve trusted the process, and trusted your consultants, and trusted our years of experience. You’ve trusted that something awesome is coming. And it is!

That’s why we are here today, Yachdav — “All Together,” pausing at an oasis along the journey to take stock, to ask questions, to glimpse the future, and to gain energy for the next leg of the journey.

You’ve come with at least as many questions as answers—that’s exactly where you should be at this stage in the process.

You’ve come with curiosity about what it really took a few even earlier pioneers to dream, to envision a different future, and then to create that future bit by bit through a spiraling series of innovations. Some are just a short distance ahead of you on the same journey; they are at the beginning of the upward spiral. Others have been traveling this road for a decade or more, and their stories will show you how they have built something wonderful by innovating, step-by-step, continuously over the years.

Your challenge for today is to find some of those answers. And your challenge is also to listen behind the answers to both the passion and the thought process; both the determination and the evolution.

Your challenge is to use this experience to learn not only about seven innovative congregations and their alternative models. Your challenge is also to learn about their journeys; to listen to what it takes to be an innovator and to become one yourself.

Today’s opportunity, in the next three hours, is nothing short of a chance to learn what it takes to be like Joshua—to take on the mantle of leadership for a new era.

And let’s look at where it is that you are headed that will require you to show strength and courage:

First, let’s acknowledge that various congregations are at slightly different points in the process.

Nevertheless, all of you soon will have a chance to “Look Inward, Again” by visiting your own school to look at it through a new set of lenses—not to judge it, but to understand it better. It will take courage to look at your school through fresh eyes to understand it on its own terms, and to avoid falling victim to surface complaints and old tapes.

Then you’ll be ready to “Look Forward;” to be courageous enough to turn your dreams into a vision of Jewish education for your congregation’s children; a vision that is both practical and compelling.

Then it will be time to adapt or even design a new model for your congregation; one that does not just make incremental improvement, but that reaches beyond the ordinary to turn vision into reality.

The congregations you have learned about through online learning have done that. Today you’ll get to learn more about the changes made by four of them, as well as three others whose programs are too new to be included online.

But let’s not fail to take note of the fact that these are not changes for the sake of change. They are changes made in RESPONSE TO, and in ALIGNMENT WITH, a VISION. Perhaps the biggest change you will see is that VISION has become the new measuring stick of success!

Vision is not just about armchair musing “where the rubber meets the sky.” Making your vision a reality is also about all of the “tachlis,” nitty-gritty tasks where the rubber meets the road. Today is a day when you can ask the panelists all of your questions about what it took to get budget allocated, and what it took to get people to come, and teachers recruited and trained, and curriculum prepared, and space arranged, and so on and so on…

When The RE-IMAGINE Project formally draws to a close, you will be performing all of those tasks as you prepare to pilot the first of what we hope will be a long and spiraling series of innovations bringing you ever-closer to your vision. You’ll need both strength and courage not to give up until that vision is a reality.

In a moment, Cyd Weissman will introduce our panelists and tell you more about what will happen the rest of the afternoon. But I want you to know that you will leave today with four things:

1. First, Insight; insight into what it means to be an innovator and the desire to become one yourself; and

2. Second, Tools; tools to do the work of Jewish education differently by leading as a partner in a team;

3. Third, Inspiration; I think you’ll be inspired by the pioneers who have gone before you and their trail-blazing work; and

4. Fourth, Comfort; comfort that someday your grandchildren will thank you for the work you are doing today.

When Joshua received the mantle of leadership from Moses, he must have been both proud, and not just a little bit apprehensive, because so much was riding on his ability to lead the Children of Israel forward into the Promised Land. We expect that you will be feeling that way, too. But you can take courage from your colleague-congregations. Unlike Joshua, you are not alone. So, I say to you, Chazak V’Ematz; be strong and of good courage and lead your congregations to re-imagined educational destinations filled with the promise of rich and meaningful Jewish learning for rich and meaningful Jewish lives!

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